Lovecraftian horrors infest IDW Publishing in January 2012

by Stephen Schleicher

Today, IDW’s Chris Ryall and Bobby Curnow hosted a press event to discuss the company’s multi-universe crossover event, Infestation 2. The first time it was zombies, this time it’s time to break out the Lovecraftian Horror.

WARNING: SOME MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Here’s a rundown of the information presented in today’s conference call:

The previous Infestation event (zombies and robots) is currently available in two trades and an upcoming hardcover collection.

Infestation 2 kicks off in January 2012, and will impact G.I. Joe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dungeons and Dragons, 30 Days of Night, Danger Girl and others. The series will continue through April 2012.

Duane Swierczynski is writing the 30 Days of Night issue and the two bookend Infestation 2 issues. According to Ryall, Duane’s script is really solid and he got the idea behind the concept right away and makes it work.

As you can imagine, coordinating these properties and making them work both in a giant event, and stand alone stories can get quite complicated. One of the big issues with the first Infestation was overlapping characters, Infestation 2 will see some characters crossing over in the series and interacting with each other.

Infestation 2 will be a stand alone series. You don’t need to know what came before. This is really important for those who don’t want to read everything.

Bobby Curnow outlined how the Lovecraftian characters (The Old Ones) interacted with properties like 30 Days of Night.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will play big in this event.

Yes – Danger Girl will get involved in this event. However, with relaunches on both Transformers and Danger Girl, IDW will be paying careful attention to continuity. It looks like Infestation 2 will not impact new continuity. Danger Girl will more than likely pop up toward the end of the event so as not to confuse the message with the new DG series.

Transformers will feature some historical characters for fans (Thomas Edison for example), and come from the Hearts of Steel storyline. If the cover is any indication of the art inside, it is going to look really cool. This is in continuity with the Hearts of Steel storyline. Can’t wait to see steampunk Tranformers take on steampunk Lovecraft.

Eberron has not been seen in comics before, and will take place in Sharn – the levitating city.

Sharn is the most populous city in all of Khorvaire, and arguably all of Eberron. The city literally towers atop a cliff above the mouth of the Dagger River in southern Breland.

There is a bit of Sherlock Holmes type story going on as the hero, Abraxis Wren, tries to find out who is bringing the Lovecraft gods to Sharn. There’s less sword and more sorcery in this series, and Infestation 2 should fit nicely with the property. According to IDW Publishing, Wizards of the Coast came to IDW with the idea to include D&D in this event.

G.I. Joe arrives in March, written by Mike Raicht. Cobra uncovers a hidden relic that starts driving people insane. The only way to fight it is to be insane. Crystal Ball, Storm Shadow and Interrogator come together to free a Cobra team to combat the event. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets your favorite horror book.

If you are wondering why Crystal Ball looks like a young Alan Moore, then you have a good eye.

This features Batboy from Weekly World News and Archibald from Groom Lake who present their own take on the Infestation 2 event. This is a humorous take on Infestation 2 being released during Leap Year.

30 Days of Night (4/4/12)Takes place in North PoleCreatorsDuane Swierczynski (writer) + Stuart Sayger (artist)

Vampires vs. Mountains of Madness? It is a horror book to the extreme, that IDW promises is very spooky.

Those who were hoping to see Star Trek: Infestation 2 or Ghostbusters: Infestation 2, you are out of luck, the company wants to shake things up, and not give readers the same thing they saw the last time.

There are 13 total issues in the event.

As with many events that are following the trilogy format, IDW Publisher Chris Ryall hinted that there may be an Infestation 3 on the way next year.

There are a number of incentives for retailers and fans for this series including:

Interconnecting covers with all the licensed books

Retailers who order 25 books, get 25 temporary tattoos.

An ashcan will be released soon for customers to take a look.

The company promises the books will hit on the scheduled dates.

Portfolios may be collected down the line featuring some of the great art.

Orders for Infestation 2 #1 are due to your comic book store on Monday, November 21, 2011, so if you want in on the ground floor, you better let your LCS know now.

Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment.

I’m hoping to be able to get my hands on these. While the first Infestation did interest me, I’m not a huge zombie fan, even if it is other dimensional zombies. This round, however, is much more in the realm of my interests.